1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of electronic sales transactions, and, more particularly, to transferring digital receipts to mobile devices.
2. Related Art
In a variety of transactions, consumers or buyers of goods or services typically receive receipts from their respective merchants or service providers as proof of existence of conducted transactions. Generally, receipts are issued by merchants and service providers for a number of reasons including, for example, regulatory or tax reasons and convenience purposes. A receipt provides information about a corresponding transaction for the purpose of providing all participants with a trace or record of the transaction. Receipts can later be used by a consumer for various purposes including, for example, proving participation in a transaction for tax reporting purpose, product returns, use as a claim ticket for a further transaction, provisioning warranties, etc. For in-store purchases, consumers generally obtain a paper receipt at the point-of-sale. Accordingly, consumers frequently retain paper receipts for some amount of time after a transaction. Saved paper receipts can then be used by consumers later to return merchandise, to track expenses for budgeting purposes, or to substantiate tax, reimbursement, or warranty claims, among many other uses.
However, these later uses may be distant in time relative to when a transaction occurred. Weeks, months, or even years may pass before a consumer needs to use an old paper receipt. For example, one consumer may need to submit all receipts associated with business expenses to an employer at the end of a month for reimbursement purposes. Another consumer may need to submit all receipts related to charitable contributions to her accountant at the end of the tax year for income deduction purposes. In either of these instances, or the countless other instances in which a consumer has a need to retrieve old paper receipts, the consumer must rely on their past diligence in storing and organizing the paper receipts (and making sure the paper receipts do not become worn or damaged) in order to achieve her intended goal. For the average consumer, it is a time-consuming endeavor to locate the particular paper receipt(s) needed, and it may in fact prove to be impossible. Paper receipts are easily misplaced and difficult to organize—not only do they come in all different shapes and sizes, but they may only be categorized at the highest level in one manner, for example, by date or by subject matter.
Indeed, the high-level categorization initially chosen for organizational purposes may not be altered without a great deal of work, which is problematic when a particular paper receipt would be located most easily through a category other than the one chosen. As such, typically methods of saving paper receipts have at least a number of limitations. At best, these limitations cost consumers their time and sanity as they wade through old receipts to find what they need; at worst, they cost consumers much more—the inability to obtain a refund, a tax deduction, a reimbursement, etc.
Although receipts for telephone or online purchases may be delivered to a customer in digital format, this does not relieve, and in some environments may compound, organizational difficulties associated with paper receipts. For example, for telephone or online purchases, consumers may wait for a paper receipt to arrive in the mail, or may obtain an electronic receipt that they print to generate a paper receipt. These paper receipts must then be retained and organized with other paper receipts. Further, some consumers may never print the electronic receipts they obtain, and instead retain those receipts in electronic form, for example, in their email accounts. As such, consumers may store old receipts in one or more locations, both physical and electronic, and the stored receipts are only as organized as the particular consumer's efforts dictate.
Another drawback to the use of paper receipts is that, unlike credit/debit transactions, individual cash transactions are not stored in conventional point-of-sale (“POS”) systems. Customers can read their own credit/debit transaction data at the websites of their banks or credit card companies. However, since the cash transactions are not stored, the paper receipts are the only record of these cash transactions.
A conventional POS system typically includes a POS terminal, one or more peripheral devices (display monitor, receipt printer, barcode scanner, weigh scale, electronic signature pad) and a payment processor with pin pad (for credit and debit cards). The data for sales transactions is usually stored in a storage device of the POS terminal, which may be uploaded to one of the remote transaction authorization server or another remote server of the credit/debit card companies. Although POS systems are well equipped for merchants to monitor and collect transaction data from the POS system, the ability of the customer to input or extract useful information from the POS system is typically limited to pinpad interactions (entering tip amounts, obtaining additional cash back, etc.), and obtaining printed receipts, the format and content of which has been pre-determined by the merchant.
Further, POS systems are typically sold with a proprietary on-board software system that may be specific to the merchant's business. The merchant is able to make minor programming adjustments to add discount codes and other special offers, but has limited ability to add functionality to the POS system.